Morton Feldman / Steffen Schleiermacher — The Late Piano Works Vol. 2 - For Bunita Marcus

Here’s the second volume of later piano works from Morton Feldman, released by German classic music label MDG Scene. And as with the other volumes in this series the piano here is played by respected German pianist Steffen Schleiermacher.

Featured here is just one piece, and that comes in the form  of For Bunita Marcus- which was composed in 1985 by Feldman two years before in his death from pancreatic cancer in 1987.  Length wise this piece is one of his mid length compositions, with running times coming anywhere between 70 & 80 minutes. This version of the track comes in at the 71.48 mark, and it was recorded in late Dec 2007.

Like many of Feldman’s compositions this is named after a fellow composers he respected & admired, and this piece is named after Wisconsin born female composer Bunita Marcus - who was very close to Feldman from the mid 1970’s up until his death. And  for seven years they were  pretty inseparable. With Feldman and Marcus composed side by side, sharing musical thoughts and ideas.

This piece finds Feldman pattern based form of composition at its most quiet, extremely subdued & stripped-back. And it’s built around a collection of very, sparse, haunting & eerier piano patterns.

The piece opens with deeply slowed & spaced-out set darting patterns- these move between mid to upper range of the keyboard, and remain very sparse . To my ears these   have quite an angular & creepy haunted house feel about them- there is no really defined melodic patter  here, but what there is instead is so much mood & atmosphere.  Mostly the tracks patterns remain very stripped- back,  often slowed & skeletal. And it’s only later on around the 40 minute mark where you get the odd prolonged flurries of more rapid & repeated notation- but fairly soon we return to the more slowed & sparse patterns again.

This recording of the piece is very, very quiet- so unless you are in a very still/ noise-less environment you'll need to have the volume turned-up.  Or if you wish to have the track as more moody background you can leave it at normal vol, but I find it most satisfying at a high volume so  that the pieces haunted & angular patterns can enchanting you with their troubled & melancholic flow.

Schleiermacher playing of the piece is very focused & skilled, yet edged with a feeling of sad longing & compliancy. This is the second Feldman piece I’ve heard him playing after his  take on Patterns in a Chromatic Field( with Christian Giger on Violoncello).  And I must say that once again he really plays Feldman’s work with such wonderfully clarity, sure-ness, yet deep emotion.

I wouldn’t say that For Bunita Marcus is for those who are new to the distinctively sparse world of Mr Feldman’s modern classic composition. As there are no real melodies, major shifts in pace/ patterns, or much variation on the whole in this piece. But if you already heard a few of Feldman pieces, and enjoyed those & want to dig deeper into the more moody side of this great composers work this is very worthy of your time.